On Reddit the other day I saw a comment that stuck with me: “The LSAT costs $200 so I don’t think I should pay more than that to prepare for it.” While on the one hand I completely understand the presumption that preparing for this test shouldn’t require much expenditure, on the other hand I also think that perspective only captures part of the picture. So let’s take a closer look!LSAT Prep Can Be Expensive Of all people, I’m well aware that LSAT preparation can be costly. We offer courses that cost over $1000 and have tutoring packages that run even higher than that. So there’s no … [Read more...]
Bruce Lee: Enter the LSAT
Most people are familiar with Bruce Lee. He was a martial arts master who became an actor, and when he died young at 32, he was already a superstar and cultural icon. But while most people know him for his martial arts movies, few know that he was also a philosopher and avid student of the mind. After his death, thousands of books were found in his house, with over 1500 marked up with detailed notes and comments. Lee wasn't just a heavy reader, he was also the author of multiple books, including writings on martial arts, poetry, philosophy, science, and positive thinking. Within those texts, … [Read more...]
What is the Best Way to Review LSAT Practice Tests?
On the PowerScore LSAT Discussion Forum, there have been discussions about how to best review practice LSATs and homework problems. Students often make a critical error when studying. I want to address that and lay down a framework for optimally reviewing the problems you complete. This will help you get the most out of the time that you spend studying. What is the Critical Study Error Many Students are Making? Most students review the questions they missed and not the ones they answered correctly. This is the most natural error in the world, but you must review every single question you … [Read more...]
Announcing: PowerScore’s LSAT Testing and Analytics Package
With the big LSAC licensing change now complete, we’re pleased to announce that we are rolling out a new LSAT digital testing program. This service provides access to every released LSAT in digital form—including over 20 tests not offered as part of LSAC's Prep Plus subscription—as well as our incredibly comprehensive performance analytics to help you identify and resolve any areas of weakness!Why Offer It Now? As we’ve discussed previously, LSAC has implemented a new LSAT question licensing program that requires anyone viewing LSAT questions in a digital format to have an … [Read more...]
LSAT Licensing Has Changed
If you are a listener of our podcast, you may have heard us talk in depth about the changes to LSAT question licensing and the impact they would have. In that episode we explained that LSAC, the people who make the LSAT and own all LSAT questions, has changed the terms of the licensing for LSAT questions for all companies, and that has far-reaching consequences on how we are able to deliver PowerScore LSAT content to students. Our licensing changed Tuesday, June 30th at 1 PM Eastern, and these are the following effects:If You’ve Purchased Courses, Tutoring, or Tests From Us Prior to June … [Read more...]
How Hard is the LSAT?
One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is, "How hard is the LSAT?" Most students have heard the test is difficult, but unless they've taken an LSAT already, they don't have a good idea of whether the test really is hard, or whether it's just like any other college test. Let's take a look at some numbers and see what the real story is here. LSAT Scoring Scale First, we have to understand the scores that are produced by the test, because those scores help us measure difficulty. Our LSAT Scoring Scale discussion explains how the 120 to 180 scoring scale works. The key discussion … [Read more...]
Welcome to the LSAT Casino
When talking about the LSAT, and particularly when examining test results, I like to analogize the LSAT to a casino. Yes, there is the chance that you can go into the test and lose your shirt score-wise. However, what I'm really referring to is the somewhat random nature of the questions you encounter on the LSAT and how that can dramatically affect test takers. The Test is a Gamble The LSAT is a standardized test. While that means certain elements are consistently tested, norming protocols are used, and the test is administered in a similar way each time, the exact content of the LSAT … [Read more...]
Quantity Terminology: Some, Few, Several, and Many
Last weekend I got into a conversation with a friend about the exact meaning of few. Yes, sadly, this is how I spend my time. Like many people, she has a very definite idea of what few means: three or more. However, from an LSAT perspective, is that definitely correct? Actually, no.While many would agree that few means three or more, the dictionary definition is, "not many but more than one". So, a few cannot be one, but it can be as low as two. This surprises many people but highlights some of the dangers of taking the LSAT without preparing beforehand. You can easily end up … [Read more...]
Killer RC: The Hardest LSAT Reading Comprehension Passages of All Time
Students studying Reading Comprehension passages often want to see the hardest passages in LSAT history. To that end, here is a list of the hardest Reading Comprehension passages of all time, in chronological order. It is accompanied by our at-times jesting commentary. Although we can no longer offer direct downloads of the games due to LSAC rules, this publication identifier link will tell you where to find them. Want to try them all? We've compiled them into a Digital Practice Set. PT2, October 1991, Passage #3: Waterbugs This was the first “hard science” passage ever to appear on the … [Read more...]
Killer LG: The Hardest LSAT Logic Games of All Time
Why Review the Hardest Games? The Logic Games section is inevitable. For many, it’s the toughest section of the test. If Logic Games are generally difficult, why then would we choose to write about the hardest games ever to appear? The short answer is that there are tremendous benefits to be gained by reviewing these games. If you understand how to recognize them and deal with them, you’ll perform better in this section. In our In Person, Live Online, and Advanced Logic Games courses, we devote lesson segments to discussing killer games. In the Advanced Course in particular, we dedicate a … [Read more...]
Killer LR: 15 of the Hardest Logical Reasoning Questions of All Time Part III
Below is Part III of our discussion of the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions of all time. This Part contains the final 5 of the 15 questions that were presented in chronological order. In Part I and Part II we went over the first 10 in our list of the most difficult LR questions of all time in chronological order. Part IV is our finale where we discuss some of the interesting patterns and statistics associated with the questions on the list. We chose this list by looking at statistics from students’ practice tests, the volume of questions we receive from students about a LR question, … [Read more...]
Killer LR: 15 of the Hardest Logical Reasoning Questions of All Time Part II
Below is Part II of our discussion of the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions of all time. This Part contains 5 more of the 15 questions we’re listing out in chronological order. In Part I, we discussed questions 1-5 on the list and in Part III we present questions 11-15. Part IV is our finale where we discuss some of the interesting patterns and statistics associated with the questions on the list. We chose this list by looking at statistics from students’ practice tests, the volume of questions we receive from students about a LR question, and our own experience teaching and writing … [Read more...]
Killer LR: 15 of the Hardest Logical Reasoning Questions of All Time Part I
Below is Part I of our discussion of the 15 hardest LSAT Logical Reasoning questions of all time. This Part contains 5 of the 15 questions, which will be presented in chronological order. In Part II we discuss questions 6-10 on the list and in Part III we present questions 11-15. Part IV is our finale where we discuss some of the interesting patterns and statistics associated with the questions on the list. We chose this list by looking at statistics from students’ practice tests, the volume of questions we receive from students about a LR question, and our own experience teaching and writing … [Read more...]
Overall Section Difficulty in Logical Reasoning
So far in this mini series, we have covered Question-by-Question Difficulty and Individual Question Difficulty. These have largely covered the individual questions within a section on Logical Reasoning on the LSAT. In this post, I am focusing my efforts to discuss overall difficulty in the LR section. Following that, I'll address how that figures into the creation of an LSAT. Overall Difficulty by the Numbers For this, we are using the statistics cited in my previous posts. From there, we have a composite of the overall average difficulty of each section from the four tests under … [Read more...]